being vocal about president trump's policies but, brooke, i also just want to tell you this is not the first time that celebrities have taken her to task on instagram. there was an open letter they posted when trump rescinded the daca program last year and they did the same thing. >> hoping to take this message to the first daughter. we'll see if it will work. chloe, thank you. thank you for being with me. "the lead" starts right now. thanks, brooke. another trump loyalist in trouble with the law. "the lead" starts right now. the first lawmaker to leap on the trump train today was charged with insider trading and prosecutors allege his crimes began when he was standing on white house grounds. letter to mueller. the trump team laying out what the president will and will not answer in front of the special counsel. can anyone control what the president will actually end up saying? poisoning payback. president trump state department finally punishing russia for

unleashing a nerve agent in the uk. good afternoon, everyone. welcome to "the lead," i'm jake tapper. republican chris collins of new york first sitting member of the congress to back the president trump's bid in february 2016. he was such a strong supporter of mr. trump collins at the republican national convention was asked to formally second mr. trump's nomination to be his party's nominee. >> i have the honor of seconding the nomination of donald j. trump as the next president of the united states of america! >> but today the congressman was arrested by the fbi. moments ago the congressman walked out of federal court in new york city where he was arraigned. prosecutors this afternoon detailing the grand jury indictments of the new york republican, his son and his son's fiancee's father for 13

counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and false statements. all stemming from an alleged insider trading scheme of an australian bio tech firm for which collins was a board member and it's difficult not to notice that the president who repeatedly declared himself the law and order candidate on the campaign trail whose crowds continue to chant that his opponent hillary clinton to be locked up, that president seems to have people in the orbit to'm to run afoul of the law. just in the last day, the president's former deputy campaign chairman rick gates was testifying about crimes he says he committed with president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort. plus, cnn also has learned that the president's former fixer and long-time attorney michael cohen is under federal investigation for tax fraud. that's just the last day. within hand, the public can be reassured that american institutions of law enforcement

continue to do their jobs, pursuing criminality wherever they see it without fear or favor with no evidence of inappropriate influence wielded to protect those who are close to the president. that's good news. on the other hand, those who thought electing president trump might mean he would drain the swamp, they likely didn't believe so many of the critters in the swamp were the president's friends and allies. i want to bring in cnn's bryn gingras. we just learned that collins will hold a press conference in a couple of hours. >> reporter: yeah. that's right, jake. at 6:30. in buffalo. we saw the congressman and his team of attorneys come out of this federal courthouse, jumping into a suv and likely headed in that direction for that press conference. inside the courtroom, the congressman, 25-year-old son cameron and soon to be father-in-law appeared calm. anything but calm is what prosecutors say all three men were when they learned about this drug and how it failed the clinical trial an the alleged

swift action they took to unload the stocks and save hundreds of thousands of dollars according to the prosecutors doing all this above the law. thinking they were above the law. republican congressman chris collins, the first member of congress to support donald trump, appearing in court late this afternoon after federal prosecutors charged him, his son cameron and another man with 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and making a false statement to the fbi. the charges stemming from an alleged insider trading scheme. >> first lady -- >> reporter: playing out on the south lawn of the white house. at the center of it all, an australian pharmaceutical company where collins was a board member. >> congressman collins was told some confidential and highly sensitive information about the drug, the information not yet made public.

namely, that innate's main drug, the drug innate was developing to be the backbone of its company was a total failure. >> reporter: according to the 30-page complaint that conversation happened while collins attended the annual congressional picnic at the white house. federal prosecutors say he received an e-mail at 6:55 p.m. that the drug failed the trial. at 7:10 p.m., collins responded to the e-mail and proceeded to try to reach his son cameron. placing six calls over a period of five minutes. later that night, cameron drove to the home of steven zarskas and his wife placed a call to their stockbroker to sell shares of the company according to the complaint. prosecutors allege that between the opening of the market on friday, june 23rd and the close of business on the following monday, cameron collins sold a total of nearly $1.4 million shares of innate. all in all prosecutors allege that collins and the other

defendants avoided more than $750,000 in losses on the stock. >> congressman collins cheated our markets and our justice system in two ways. first, he tipped his son to confidential corporate information at the expense of regular investors. and then he lied about it to law enforcement to cover it up. >> reporter: collins who represents upstate new york became a frequent trump surrogate on cable news in the campaign. the lawyers saying in a statement, quote, we will answer the charges filed against congressman collins in court and will mount a vigorous defense to clear his good name. we are confident he'll be completely vindicated and exonerated. now, each of the men had to sign over a $500,000 personal bond and they had to turn over the passports, jake. the attorneys for both cameron and the congressman deny these

allegations. of course, we'll hear more from the congressman appearing for that news conference in buffalo around 6:30. jake? >> bryn, thanks so much. i want to set the scene for a second. brynn mentioned this white house -- none of this has to do with president trump directly, of course. but on june 22nd, 2017, that's when prosecutors say the congressman got that e-mail including insider information and started to calling his son and just so happens he was at the congressional picnic at the white house surrounded by the colleagues, tons of people. look at this part. this was 7:30. everyone's taking pictures. collins distracted. perhaps looking down at the phone. this is exactly 14 minutes after collins according to prosecutors called his son to give him the tip. i mean, it really is remarkable. again, innocent until proven guilty. people seem to think that there aren't going to be investigations or records of these things. >> i mean, the term that people use, culture of corruption. him being there in the

environment and making -- that is literally a culture of corruption. that's what that is. and at this point, like, with all the people accused of these sort of acts, it's like starting to feel like looting. it is starting to feel like people came in and get everything -- like a supermarket sweep of criminality. running through with the arm out to get everything into the cart and makes me feel like president trump talking about a witch hunt and see stuff like this, the commerce secretary, the garden variety corruption issues in the sense that it's stuff that has happened more isolated cases in the past and very hard to say that, therefore, it's a witch hunt, politically motivated and cut and dry. somebody took something they weren't supposed to take. >> very rare to indict a sitting congressman, especially within 100 days of the election. >> as you said, they will go through the evidence and have a trial but the timing of the e-mail and then the phone call and then the selling of the stock's quite suspicious. >> before the bad news comes out to make the stock sink.

>> with all the issues you listed, no one can keep their nose clean and that's been like for a long time in washington but in this administration in particular, no message from the top to keep your nose clean and sometimes quite the obvious. people do not act the way they should and are tempted to act other ways and not told otherwise. >> i think people surprised to discover you can be a congressman on the energy and commerce committee regulating the pharmaceutical industry and sit on board of a company, introduce legislation which he did before this all happened to seem to benefit the company, buy a lot of the stock when the legislation looks like it will pass and then a phone call as a director of the ceo i guess and appear to dump the stock or tell your son to dump the family stock or some chunk of it before the rest of the world knows. i don't know. is it that much to ask maybe congressman not on boards of directors trade stocks and --

>> seriously. honest question. i'm personally surprised. at the white house, chief of staff, the vice president, i wasn't going to do anything to affect anything. i put my money in mutual funds. seemed like the obvious thing to do. can't own a stock and something comes up. you know? this is an actual member of congress. so that's one thing to say. maybe someone to introduce legislation to make that happen. that's not a bad thing. senator schumer and lead pelosi to try to make a fuss about and demand a vote on it in september. >> some people don't think the rules apply to them. the photo at the top of the show, that's what it's called receipts. that's receipts and damning and slightly incriminating. the congressman in the 27th congressional district. chr it's moved to a likely republican seat. you know, folks -- democrat in the race already raising money off of this. this just goes to show that any type of conduct can open up the

doors for democrats to gain all types of seat this is fall probably not on the table before. >> there is a culture of corruption in washington. did proceed donald trump and it is bipartisan. we have seen this before. there's the "60 minutes" report of the insider trading allowed to legislate things for -- and then trade accordingly and something so brazen about this including the fact that he allegedly lied to investigators about it even though there's a paper trail and phone trail. >> right. that's what people's hate about this town is the fact that people feel entitled to do that and counter intuitively why many voted for donald trump and of course at the time i argued was not going to be the great cleaner of the system. but it is why people looked for something completely outside the system to attempt to get them there. and i think we see over and over again that's not the case. i would wonder whether this -- the culture of corruption tag

can have the same impact as it might have had in 2006 with the mark foley scandals because the news cycle is so fast and so furious. and we have so many of these stories. i think we have seen the impact go down which is regrettable to some extent. >> can i say something in defense of this town? there's a culture of integrity. what about the justice department? they indicted, trump's justice department, people that report to people -- yes. it's impressive. >> u.s. attorney berman appointed by president trump. >> we should be a little -- there's a culture of corruption and something impressive about the justice department has behaved in this instance. >> to add a nuance to this, saying how brazen it is, i remember when i was in the state house in jefferson city and would see on a bill about pharmacy benefits, somebody would say i'm a pharmacist and going -- i remember like my head exploding thinking, perhaps then you shouldn't speak on this.

because it has a financial interest for you and i would go back to the idea that frequently and i think this happens in washington, too, people mistake conflict of interest for expertise and so -- i don't know if that's the case here. bill, i mean, i agree with you, ridiculous that you can have this -- sit on a board and be on the committee. i guarantee you, likely anyway, he had conversations like, well, i know a lot about this because i sit on -- people are like, oh, we should listen to this guy on the board. that's the problem. they can't tell the difference of conflict of interest and expertise. >> absolutely and then this is allowed to go on because the congress, the folks in congress are not necessarily regulated themselves. you know, i would venture to say congressman collins isn't only pen on a pharmaceutical board or health board here or there and so who is going to check the checker? that is what the american people i think are asking. >> that's one of the things we have seen in this town is ultimately there's sometimes a lot of times that democrats won't take actions that would hurt republicans because they're

also worried about their own members and who knows what's going on with democratic congressmen? you haven't seen stampede of people saying we need to clean this up today. >> it is driven by self interest and sometimes partisan interest and looking ahead to like what if i get in the crosshairs of this committee and doesn't feel great to me and getting an investigation upon investigation of themselves in congress and often does not really cut through. >> democrats are crazy in my view, challengers against republicans, not to run -- >> oh, yes. >> murray is running. >> no nancy pelosi. no business as usual. none of the same rules. clean the place up. >> you had her and then you lost her. >> you had me and then i was like i'm not with bill. >> everyone stick around. president trump responding to bob mueller's request for an interview but is it an honest effort for a deal? a pressure campaign of ivanka trump by celebrities but is the first daughter willing to

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this afternoon, president trump's legal team made the latest counter offer to special counsel mueller regarding the interview request with president trump and set limits on what mueller can ask. how much of this is actual negotiation and how much is theater is anyone's guess? kaitlan collins is in new jersey near where the president is doing the working vacation. the conditions could be a sure sign that two sides are nowhere near a deal and might never be. >> reporter: that's right, jake. what we seem to be seeing here today with this response of the president's legal team to the

special counsel doesn't seem to be closing the gap of the two sides negotiating for eight months. and instead, it seems to be showing us just how far apart they remain. president trump's legal team responding to the special counsel's latest request for an interview today. >> we have given him an answer. he obviously should take a few days to consider it. but we should get this resolved. >> reporter: the president's lawyers declining to characterize their response to robert mueller. >> we won't discuss the contents of the letter to send but i'll tell you this. that our response will be -- is thoughtful and includes issues that are raised under the constitution so i'll leave it at that. >> reporter: while urging him once again to bring the investigation to an end. >> we do not want to run into the november elections. so back up from that, this should be over with by september 1st. >> reporter: the response is latest in the back and forth between the two sides that has

dragged on for eight months now. mueller indicated last week he'd be willing to limit the questions of obstruction of justice maintaining to ask those questions in person. today, giuliani making clear certain questions are off limits. >> i could right now give you the answer that he's going to give to the question, why did you fire james comey? he gave it to lester holt. it is on tape. >> reporter: openly admitting he's worried the president could perjure himself. >> start to think that the only reason they want this explanation is so that they can come up with some kind of a perjury thing. >> it's called a perjury trap, what we have talked about often. >> reporter: while trump ramped up the public attacks on the special counsel he's at odds with his own legal team over the prospects of an interview. >> the president stated he wants to do an interview. the position of the legal team is we don't advise that.

>> reporter: jay sekulow admitting -- >> the decision's up to the president. >> reporter: now, the president and the reason he wants to get in front of the special counsel because he believes he can communicate his innocence to him and bring this investigation to an end. now, the president's legal team declined the special counsel's interview request it could be a show down in court over a presidential subpoena and only happened to one other president in office. jake? >> all right. kaitlan collins with the president in new jersey. up next, the other letter, what we know was in that special delivery, senator rand paul gave to be given to russian president vladimir putin in the solo trip to russia. stay with us. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪

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we're back with breaking news in the world lead. the trump administration announcing minutes ago to impose new sanctions on russia, coming in response to the poisoning of former russian spy skripal and his daughter. the united kingdom blaming russia for a military grade soviet era nerve agent that nearly killed them on uk soil. moscow denied that charge. jim sciutto joins me now. what can you tell me about the sanctions? >> reporter: they're required by law, long existing u.s. law when it's determined that a country used chemical weapons and that russia used a chemical weapon to attempt to commit murder on uk soil. we should note that the trump administration imposing the sanctions about 30 days after the deadline imposed by that law but they're following the law as it's written. you have two potential rounds here. the first round of sanctions

relatively light. it can affect some exports, financing. the real test is going to be if russia doesn't allow inspections of chemical weapons facilities and doesn't make assurances to not use them again then there are harsher sanctions, ban all imports and exports and relations. that will really be the test for this administration. >> their hands is forced because it's the law. >> exactly. >> earlier today, interesting move, senator paul of kentucky delivering by hand a letter from president trump giving it to putin's administration in russia. it's not really clear what's in the letter, though. >> it is not. initially rand paul advertised this as something he was a courier here of president trump and president vladimir putin but we are told by white house sources that, in fact, president trump was doing a favor for rand paul. he was in moscow. wanted to meet with the russian president and president trump, this according to white house, wrote a letter of introduction and that this was not a secret

communication between trump and putin. >> tonight republican senator rand paul announcing he delivered a letter to russian president vladimir putin claiming from president donald trump tweeting, quote, the letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including counter terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges. the white house said it was written at the request of the senator, not the president, the help paul obtain a meeting with putin that has not happened in the solo trip to russia. president trump provided a letter of spro dooux, deputy press secretary said in a statement. in the letter, the president mentioned topics of interest of senator paul to discuss with president putin. senator paul and mr. trump, however, share an interest in improving relations between the u.s. and russia. while in moscow, paul spoke of the need for diplomacy.

>>dy employee diplomacy is impo the goal to come to russia is for open lines of communication. >> reporter: however, paul did not answer cnn's question when asked if he confronted russian officials about russia's ongoing interference in u.s. politics. >> senator, did you speak about election interference, as well? >> we had general discussions of a lot of issues and basically we have decided that right now what we're trying to do is have dialogue and we solve issues -- it's not the issues at hand. >> reporter: stands in sharp contrast to the nation's senior most national security officials. just last week, they delivered the stark warning that russian interference remains pervasive today. >> i think it goes beyond the elections, goes to russia's intent to undermine the democratic values. >> putin's press secretary say that is this letter delivered through what he called

diplomatic channels. they say, the kremlin, they have not reviewed it and we should note that the meeting between putin and paul has not happened. jake? >> jim, thank you. we'll talk about wit the experts now. mary katherine, there's a schizophrenic foreign policy with russia. you have coats, wray saying that the russians, attacked us. cyber. doing it again right now. and then you have president trump and rand paul who seem to be on a different page. >> right, yeah. you have this constantly divergence of the president specifically saying publicly and the policies that they're putting in place. many tough and good. but that's a problem because what the president says matters. now, rand paul has always been more on the interventionist leading isolationist side than many people in the senate but i hate the way it's framed by trump supporters and by more libertarian parts of the party where it says either war or

diplomacy. all out war, diplomacy. we can dodi ploem diplomacy. >> what is rand paul meeting with putin going to do about clair mccaskill hacked by the russians in missouri? i don't understand this insatiable need of people in congress to run over there and meet with vladimir putin. it makes no sense to me. when we are under threat, less than 100 days from the midterm elections. and cyber security-wise, there are many people not safe. so i just think that folks need to be taken this a lot more seriously. and i hope that rand paul gets a reaming in congress when the colleagues ask him what the hell he's doing. >> very much -- welcome to a hawkish foreign policy. >> glad to be here today. >> seriously, why is trump writing a letter for rand paul?

>> open it up, says neat guy. i don't know. >> seriously. he has an ambassador to moscow. jon huntsman. he has a national security adviser. paul, sanctions, i think in the bill -- >> one of the 98-2. >> he is one of the two. he is against the policy of the huge majority of congress on putin which trump is conceding to. giving paul the letter undercuts the notion of a tough russia policy i think. >> sometimes it's helpful to step back and look at this from high up. i'm reminded of you talk about like a schizophrenic foreign policy. we are supposed to be a big family and stop at the water's edge. when i was a kid and my younger brother was smaller than me, we get in fights and beat him up a little bit and coming from down the street and tried to beat my brother i kicked your butt. that's how it works. republicans and democrats, we

have arguments inside the house but trying to attack the house, like, we band together and kick your butt. this isn't how it's supposed to go and the way you get in the good graces of president trump saying, hey, i'd love to meet with your buddy putin. >> you said this is not new. he is a skeptic of the more hawkish foreign policy to russia and been critical when they were running against each other of donald trump specifically on how donald trump would handle vladimir putin. in fact, during that second republican debate that i moderated in simi valley at the reagan library, listen to this. >> do we want someone with that character, that careless language to be negotiating with putin? >> apparently so. >> that's a good question, senator paul. and i also take issue with paul said the problem is there is no dialogue. the president just sat down with putin very recently as we all remember and dialogue may be

some of the problem and the careless speaking within said dialogue is part of the problem so i agree with old senator paul again. >> i guess the other question is, bill, if the russians are still attacking the united states, facebook just last week i think took down some ads that were supposedly by the russians trying to foment discord in the united states, dan coats talking about how the russians still attacking us, why is there this constant need to go and talk to people who are attacking the citizens of the united states? >> no. it's pathetic. also attacking russian dissidents in england, great britain, killing a british woman. chemical weapons on british soil. if a delegation, jason's way of -- a delegation, senior senators and congressmen to talk tough with putin, you'll pay a big price for this and other

things elsewhere and great britain, that's one thing. there's a case for congress weighing in in support of a tough u.s. foreign policy. not much case for one senator trying to undercut american foreign policy. >> rand paul spoke last month about the importance of diplomacy with russia and gets to the false choice that you say he makes. take a listen. >> nobody is saying or excusing russia's meddling in the elections. absolutely. we should protect the integrity of our elections. but simply bringing the hatred of the president to the senate floor in order to say, we are done with diplomacy. the hatred for the president is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chance. >> is that you? are you a partisan to risk war because you hate donald trump so much? >> i'm pretty sure that diplomacy is the reason we didn't go directly to war with russia or the soviet union.

i don't get the idea like for the longest time having this debate to go to war with russia or diplomacy? that's not true. it is like he's saying someone is trying to burglarize the house and we should just talk to them. i mean, it doesn't make any sense. >> appeasement? do you think? >> there's an urgency here because we are close to an election and that's what they're trying to mess with. >> they're in the house. >> present at the top of the mind in dealing with it strictly is important. >> stick around. we have more to talk about. the president may be touting a gop sweep in the primaries, the results show about republicans and democrats about november. stay with us. hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that.

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we're back with the politics lead r. the lights blinking red for republicans in november? last night's special election race in ohio's 12th congressional district too close to call. troy balderson is calling victory but danny o'connor did not concede given the numbers of votes outweigh the lead. it's a seat in republican hands since ronald reagan. let's talk about the results. jason candor, a former secretary of state in missouri and have a new book titled "outside the wire." partly focuses on your life in politics and the military and life for democrats in 2018 and beyond. what lessons are you taking from the ohio 12th race last night where it looks like the republican probably has a victory? >> first of all, as you mentioned this district is republican since 1982. i was born in 1981 so that seems

like a long time ago. right? and i guess the lesson to take from all of this that we have seen recently is democrats we sort of have an mojo back and making an argument. one of the points i make in "outside the wire" is you have to try to convince people of things because that's how they know you're passionate enough and that you care enough to try to fight for them. passion is pervasive. a story in the book one of the first doors i ever knocked on, fellow came to the door. it was clear immediately that we didn't agree on things. i started to get nervous about it. i started to do what i'd seen politicians do on tv. trying to convince him we agree and gets worse and i thank him for the time. said that's what i believe. he goes, well, that's fair. i'll vote for you. you can put a sign in the yard. the lesson from that is, it's not a test. it is not a multiple choice test where they're going down with an excel spreadsheet, but trying to figure out if you believe what you do because you care about

them. that's politics right there. >> interesting story. mary katherine, the president taking credit for balderson's victory. when i decided to go to ohio he was down in early voting 64-36. that was not good. after my speech on saturday night there was a big turn for the better. now troy wins a great victory in a tough time of the year for voting. he'll win big in november. he floated in the tweets that he went 5 for 5. that's a reference to the five candidates he endorsed. one in special election and four in primaries. winning. does he deserve some credit here? >> if anything, a win for the trump/kasich alliance. only half kidding. there's lower turnout than expected in the rural areas and kasich's areas, more educated ex-urban suburban areas with better turnout. it is crazy for republicans not to see it as a warning sign. we are close to a november election. this should be every reason in

the world to make sure you have your ts crossed and is dotted and democrats shown good in elections of turning enthusiasm into actual gotv. alabama's the first example of this and doesn't pull them across the line but special elections are hard. a regular election is bit easier and many districts will be tougher than this district. >> yeah. >> for republicans. >> there's a race in kansas for a gubernatorial primary. president trump supporting, endorsing chris kobach, secretary of state, over the incumbent governor and right now he's leading by less than 200 votes over the incumbent governor. he's a secretary of state. he said he's not going to recuse himself from any sort of state level recount. i'll get your take on this in a second but what do you think about that? i mean, just in the name of ethics, shouldn't he given that it's his own race? >> it's straightforward.

to super vise recount, do things according to the book. why not recuse yourself? you would think. democrats think they have a chance to win if he wins the nomination. they nominated an attractive candidate. two of the kansas seats have just moved in a couple of ratings. do this professionally from lead republican or likely republican to toss-ups. looking at kansas, michigan, washington, as well as ohio, few states with primaries yesterday, they look good for the democrats. better turnout looking at how people voted in the party. not republican versus democratic matchups but yeah. so republicans should be worried. honestly, do joke about before. single card republicans have left to play is nancy pelosi in these house seats. >> that's a sad place to be. >> you voted republican all of your life. you're a swing voter. upper middle class outside columbus and don't like trump and think maybe a democratic house could check trump and

maybe this democrat when's been nominated is pretty moderate, live with it for two, four years and then they show the picture of nancy pelosi and the democratic house and everything you have disliked about the party, but you're a republican voter by definition for 10, 20 years comes back. if she took -- had a press conference saying i will work my heart out to help democrats win the house and not stand for speaker, i'll let another generation take over that puts the democrats over the top. >> to be clear -- >> and then win the senate, too. >> nor do i advise leader pelosi, if that's the card that republicans have to run, a sad place to be and the blue wave will be coming. i think -- >> i feel like it's working -- >> no. but it's working because what i'm telling you is look. i think we are not giving voters enough credit. folks living in west virginia, places in missouri, i mean, out in michigan, they're just not thinking about nancy pelosi. they're thinking about health

care, education. >> i agree but -- >> and it's not been -- >> spending a lot of money -- >> losing is what i'm telling you. they're losing. they're losing. i want them to spend the money. >> back to kobach. >> you didn't have a recount when you ran. >> i was on the ballot. >> rub it in there, jake. >> no. >> it's okay. >> when you ran for senate, you were secretary of state. >> yes. >> and you didn't have a recount but -- >> we had a plan in place. >> you did? >> i was going to recuse myself. knew it would be close. obvious. right? now talking about this 200 votes difference. like, i'm obviously largely worried of the biggest fact running to be the mayor of kansas city bordering kansas and many reasons why don't want to be kobach to be the governor next door and probably could do a whole show about that. >> voter fraud. >> we can trade. >> i love to do that show. >> first you have to explain why kansas city is not in kansas. so confusing. >> i think that's a great idea.

>> keep going. >> look. this -- the reason i think it's really scary is, one, look. 200 votes and he shouldn't be in charge of counting those 200 votes on the ballot and why i was going to recuse myself and worried about in this moment is that kobach has a dangerous super power to deploy in the next few days. villainous and it is he can say racist or horrible or dangerous things and he can do it in a very reasonable sounding tone that sometimes will deceive the audience. i guarantee you he's about to do that about whether or not a secretary of state when's on the ballot for governor to conduct their own recount. >> i should note we invited him to come on and respond. simone, one thing, obviously one of the other stories last night was the fact that a lot of the more left leaning democrats did not win. in fact, alexandria cortez endorsed a bunch of candidates and most of them lost. does this suggest democrats are

actually much more centrist and less enamored with the bernie sanders wing of which you come or not? >> no. i don't think that's what suggests at all but in some places people ran better campaigns. look at davis. and kansas city, kansas, district 3, who was poised to be the first native american woman elected to congress. she won the primary. she is a progressive. i think that it depends on how you run a race. where you're running. >> endorsed by -- >> she wasn't. who's to say that -- >> bernie sanders. >> or to just be frank, the revolution is only stamp you need to be progressive. progressives don't like me. think i sold out, jake. they're not how i judge my progressiveness today. >> one more thing about that. folks are not, like, in my race for mayor, people showing up and every other race i have seen, people are not doing it because of somebody on tv. we should start with that. people are doing it because they were called up a year ago and going to the town hall and

asking about health care. do you want to go? people are brought into the movement by the neighbors. not by the -- >> everyone stick around. more to talk about in the next panel. flooding the feed. the strong message that celebrities try to send ivanka trump on instagram. is he reading them or unfollowing them? a little bit of water, it really- it rocked our world. i had no idea the amount of damage that water could do. we called usaa. and they greeted me as they always do. sergeant baker, how are you? they were on it. it was unbelievable. having insurance is something everyone needs, but having usaa- now that's a privilege. we're the baker's and we're usaa members for life. usaa. get your insurance quote today.

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pop culture lead today, dear ivanka. celebrities such as comedians chelsea handler or amy schumer urging the first daughter to do more about the kids remaining

separated from the parents. you said family separation was a low point for you, the low point is for the separated families. you spoke in past tense. this crisis is ongoing. as of thursday, the administration says 572 separated children remain in government custody. mary katherine, can this be effective at all? ivanka comes from a world where she like it is approval of fellow celebrities and there's a suspicion she is not really much of a republican. >> right. i think that ship sailed for the approval of fellow celebrities at this point and whether it's effective, probably not. although i think that the past tense bit is more clever than a lot of celebrity campaigns you see. this is sort of a perfect distillation of the pop culture war that the trump campaign and celebrities are happy to play against each other. forever and ever amen. and we'll be subjected to it again and again and again. look, it will bring attention, put it -- fire under people's feet about this issue.

i'm not sure that, a, she wields any or power or super popular. >> i don't think she has any power but this campaign will be effective affecting her personally, her name in the media and has a lot of liber ri thing to do. we cannot confuse ivanka's proximity to mean power. she has ample opportunity to demonstrate and flex the muscle, if you will. all the times i've seen her on the big stage, over in germany, the flub she had about, oh, the kids in cages, so on and so forth, not able to affect real change and proximity doesn't necessarily mean power here. >> i want to come to you. let's just play the sound bite of ivanka trump talking about the issue they're talking about specifically when she was asked about the lowest point in the trump presidency. >> that was a low point for me,

as well. i feel very strongly about that. and i am very vehemently against family separation. and the separation of parents and children. >> i mean, i give them credit for pointing out this issue isn't over. policies and not just in terms of the border but daca and rounding up people in this country for 20 years and sending them back when they haven't committed crimes. worth attending to. so i give them credit for putting on pressure. i'm struck with the business people of dinner with trump. some of the same people a year ago when charlottesville happened, i'm declining and now -- everyone's totally forgotten. that was amazing, that sort of the outrage went very quickly so if the celebrities keep the outrage up a little and put the pressure on the trump administration for a more

sensible policy on immigration broadly that's fine with me. >> i'll say she could the ret cli, a senior adviser to the president and power to say, dad, i want to be in charge of making sure that these kids are all reunified and send them back to the home countries or whatever. she didn't do that. >> if nothing else, a reminder that there are hundreds of kids not returned to their parents and that the trump administration is going in to court saying aclu, you care so much, you find the parents. rather than the government doing it which, i mean, if nothing else, it should stay in the conversation because there are children who are not with their parents and while, you know, you can question the tactics, i suppose if you were to compare it to the room of somebody with access to the president and children who are kept from their parents or not returned to them, i imagine there's a moral muscle in there that flexes for any of us and says, hey, please do something. >> she's been in the room and

done nothing. >> that's what i mean. >> thank you so much. follow me on facebook or twitter. thanks to the experts here. the coverage continues with wonderful blitszwolf blitzer in "the situation room." thanks for watching. happening now, breaking news. punishing putin. the trump administration announces new sanctions on russia after saying that the government used a deadly nerve agent in the attempted assassination of a former spy and daughter in britain. waiting game. president trump's lawyers counter the latest interview offer of special counsel robert mueller. they worry that the questions related to obstruction could lead to the president of perjure himself. will mueller agree or finally issue a subpoena to the president? do not lie to the fbi. republican congressman chris collins, the first to endorse donald trump, is arrested on insider